


Five different cryptids (and how Danny and Wes didn't find them)

by dannyphantomyeetme



Series: #thesquad UFS [12]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Camping, Cryptids, Cute, Demon, Explicit Language, Fluff, Gnomes, M/M, Mermaids, Monster Hunters, Mothman, Romance, Swearing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, dumb boys in love, five times one time but without the one time, hunting monsters, lake, lakemonster, woods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25245298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dannyphantomyeetme/pseuds/dannyphantomyeetme
Summary: Five times, Danny and Wes tried to hunt for monsters. Five times, they failed spectacularly (or got distracted).
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Wesley Weston
Series: #thesquad UFS [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686805
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	Five different cryptids (and how Danny and Wes didn't find them)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on vacation. I don't have my usual writing programs like grammarly, etc. Sorry if there's lots of spelling errors. English isn't my first language.

**1\. Gnomes**

“You’re not actually gonna catch anything, y’know,” Jazz says. “Except maybe a mouse.”

“Shhh,” says Wes. “You’re gonna scare ‘em away.”

Danny is next to Wes, on his knees on the floor, watching his boyfriend try and peer into the mouse-hole. Gnomehunting wasn’t exactly what Danny thought he’d be doing when he woke up this morning, but it’s weirdly fun. Wes is excited, Jazz is exasperated, and Danny can spend the day ignoring the pile of homework he’s been putting off.

“I doubt there’s anything in there,” Jazz says. “Mom had an exterminator get rid of the mice last spring.”

“We’re not looking for mice, Jazz,” Danny says, mostly because he loves the way Wes beams at him when he entertains his belief in supernatural--besides, it _could_ be true. If ghosts are real, who’s to say gnomes aren’t?

… Big stretch, but still.

“I’m gonna go read in my room,” Jazz says, getting up from where she’s sat at the kitchen table. She picks up her book. “Have fun monster-hunting, dorks.”

Danny flips her off behind her back, then turns back to Wes, who’s started thumbing through his notebook.

“They don’t have to be hiding in the mousehole,” he says. He’s got that wild look in his eyes, and Danny wants to reach over and kiss him ‘til he stops thinking just as much as he wants to egg him on. He doesn’t fully understand the want yet, and carefully locks it away for later consideration; maybe. “They could be in any small space. Like behind a bookcase.”

Danny hauls the living room bookcase (which is waist-high and mostly holds DVDs, but would still be too heavy for a regular human) away from the wall. It’s strange, how much he would do to make Wes happy. How’s he going to explain what they’re doing if his parents come in right now?

“Nothing,” Wes says, disappointed, after he’s inspected the floor, the wall, and even tried to sneak a peek through the crack between the floorboards the bookcase is supposed to be hiding.

“Maybe they think it’s a game,” Danny says. “Hide and seek, y’know? Every time we come close, they run.”

Wes smiles, seeming amused. “I don’t think so.”

“Well,” Danny says, voice slightly strained as he lifts the bookcase back into place. “If they’re here, we’ll find them.”

Wes’s smile grows bigger, blinding, and Danny does step close then, standing on his tippy-toes to kiss him.

They forget to look for gnomes after that.

**2\. Lake-monster**

Admittedly, Danny thinks this particular hunt has more of a chance of success than some of the other ones Wes has dragged him on.

Lake Eerie is… weird. That’s the best explanation Danny can come up with. He, Sam and Tucker used to go to summer camp around here every summer when they were younger, and his father likes to go fishing here, but Danny’s never gotten used to the vibe the place has. His ghost powers have only amplified it, to the point where he knows, for a fact, that something is haunting the water.

Danny likes to come here anyway. The woods are far enough away from the light-pollution of Amity Park to stargaze properly, and he isn’t exactly scared of any ghosts, anyway.

Wes isn’t looking for a ghost, though.

“Doesn’t Nessie live in Scotland?” Danny asks. He’s floating above the bank of the lake, trying to test if he can taunt ‘the lake monster’ into coming out. They’ve been at this for about three hours. The sky is starting to turn orange, pink and red.

“We’re not looking for Nessie, dorkus,” Wes says, rolling his eyes. “Now hold still. Your hair looks really nice in this light.”

Danny sticks out his tongue right before the click of the camera. He doesn’t usually like people taking pictures of him, but Wes is a good photographer. He could do it professionally. Probably. If he wanted to. Which he doesn’t.

“Cute,” Wes comments. “I don’t think she wants to come out today.”

“Huh?” Danny asks.

“The monster,” Wes says. “We should head back to the tent before it becomes too dark. We can try again in the morning.”

“Kay,” Danny says, though he doubts they’d get lost. He can see in the dark, after all.

Wes has to climb over leaves and fallen tree trunks and duck underneath branches while Danny phases through all of them. After the third glare sent his way, Danny chuckles.

“Do you need some help, Wesley Leslie?”

“I grew up camping,” Wes says, indignant. “I am perfectly capable of- Fuck!”

Through his laughter, Danny manages to ask: “You okay?”

Wes looks so incredibly bewildered, like he doesn’t know how he could have possibly ended up tripping and falling over. Danny is just about to actually get worried when Wes groans.

“I’m a dumb-ass.”

“Ahw, don’t say that.” Danny floats closer to Wes, reaching out to pick a leaf out of his hair. “Honest mistake. Could have happened to anyone.”

“Uh-huh,” Wes says. “But it happened to me.”

“And it’s _such_ a tragedy. You’ll never survive.” Danny grabs Wes’s arms and half-pulls, half-lifts him into a standing position, ignoring the yelp of protest his boyfriend lets out. “Up you go, big guy.”

Wes is frowning, so Danny presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth to make him stop.

It works. When he pulls away, Wes is pulling that face he makes when he’s trying very hard not to smile. The corner of his mouth quivers, then curls up just a bit.

“It’s getting dark,” Danny says.

“Yeah,” Wes says.

“And I’ve been in ghost form all day, I’m getting hungry.”

“Oh, shit,” Wes says, expression smoothing out. “Yeah, let’s keep going.” He makes to start walking again, but Danny stops him with a hand around his wrist. He feels like there is something he should say, something he should have said a while ago, but he doesn’t quite know how to.

_I love you._

(Is he ready to say that, though? And is this really when he wants to do it?)

“Danny?” Wes asks.

“Nothing. Thought I heard something,” Danny lies, letting go of Wes’s wrist. “Did ya know I brought marshmallows?”

  
**3\. Demon**

“Okay, no,” Danny says. “Nuh-uh. No. Nope. Too far.”

“Really? Wes asks, amused. “That’s where you draw the line?”

“Yes.”

They’re in Danny’s room. Danny’s floating slightly above the bed, because today seems to be a day where he’s weightless no matter how hard he tries not to be. Wes is on the bed, his laptop on his lap with some sketchy website Danny recognizes as the one Wes mainly uses for research open, though there’s about a hundred other tabs as well.

“I thought you didn’t believe in demons,” Wes says, looking back at his screen and scrolling down the page.

“I don’t,” Danny says. He pulls a hand through his hair, which really doesn’t need to be messed up even more. “But what if I’m wrong?”

“Fair,” Wes says. He closes the lid of his computer and sets it on the nightstand before slumping against the pillow. He looks up at Danny and opens his arms. “Guess we have to stay in bed all day, then. Come cuddle.”

Danny floats down and lets himself be wrapped up in Wes’s arms.

There is no way he is ever risking demon-hunting. He's got way too much to lose.

**4\. Mothman**

“If I could just-”

“No.”

“But I can-”

“No powers, ghost boy,” Wes says, firmly. “You promised. You gotta suffer nature with me this time.”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘suffering’,” Danny says. “I just can’t get this to stay.” He’s struggling with a tent pole. Every time he thinks he has it, the tent collapses again.

This would be so much easier if he could use telekinesis, but Wes has banned ghost powers "except in case of absolute emergency". Danny isn't used to not using any powers at all, and his ghost-side gets kinda freaky when he doesn't, but he can handle one night.

“Look, if you need me to do it-”

“I can do it!” Danny insists.

He's a sixteen-year-old god damn boy, he should know how to set up a tent with his own two hands.

“If you say so. It just looks like…”

Wes wisely doesn’t finish that sentence, probably because of the glowy-eyed glare Danny sends his way--a part of his anatomy that Danny couldn't help if he tried, though he's not exactly trying.

"Well, let me know if you need any help," Wes says. "I'm gonna go take some pictures."

Half an hour later finds Danny sitting among the ruins of their tent, with no idea how he messed up this bad with just human stupidity to guide him.

"Oh, my God," Wes says, very clearly suppressing a fit of laughter. "Danny… how?"

"I don't know!" Danny whines. He falls onto his back, ignoring the jab of a tent-pole digging into his back, and covers his face with his hands. "I'm so useless, holy crap."

"You're not useless," Wes says soothingly. He sits down on the ground next to Danny with his knees crossed under him. "Just a little helpless."

"Same thing."

"Not really."

Danny pulls his hands down his face, groaning, then looks up at Wes. "Any signs of Mothman?"

"I mean, I'd say yes," Wes says. "But I'm sure if I told you about them you'd disagree."

"What? Did you see some broken branches?" Danny asks, squinting. The sun is right behind Wes's head. "In the woods? What a shock!"

"Ass." Wes slaps Danny's leg.

Danny sits up. 

"You like my ass," he says, just to watch Wes blush.

Predictably, it works. Wes isn't usually easily flustered, but if Danny curses, that does the trick. He doesn't know if Wes thinks he's more innocent than he really is or what, but he's happy he's found something to pester Wes with, because Wes has way too much on him and he wants to return the favor.

"Shut up," Wes says.

"Fuck, okay."

"Stop!"

"Okay, okay." Danny chuckles, holding up his hands. "So no actual winged man in the sky yet, then?"

"No," Wes says. "I mean, he's never been spotted here, so it's a shot in the dark anyway, but…" He shrugs.

Danny thinks he gets it. They haven't had time alone in a while. Monster hunting is a good excuse to get away.

"Help me?" he asks.

Together, they manage to set up what's left of the tent. It's not as bad as Danny thought it was. There's a rip in one of the sides, but it's not gonna get cold out anyway.

"How?" Wes asks again. "Just… how."

"I'm stronger than I look," Danny says, showing off his non-existent muscles. It's true, though: he might look pretty scrawny, but he could lift a bus if he wanted to (and has).

"You used ghost strength!" Wes accuses.

"Only a little."

Wes tackles him to the ground. Danny's shriek is cut-off with an oompf.

**5\. Mermaids**

They're at the beach. Tucker and Dani are in the water, seemingly playing a game of 'who can drown the other person the best'. Jazz is sat on her towel, reading. Ana's tanning. Sam has gone off to hide in the shadow and 'simmer' (and avoid Ana). Sid's around too, somewhere. Last Danny saw of him, he was 'talking very calmly' to some guy who destroyed a kid's sand castle.

"Really," Wes says. "We might as well."

"We're not in Mexico, babe," Danny says. "We're not gonna find La, uh-" he can't pronounce this. "La Lorohna?"

" _La Llorona_ ," Wes says, butchering the name far less. Show-off. "Okay. How about mermaids?"

Wes's total belief that any- and everything supernatural could be real is endearing. Danny smiles, reaching out to boop the tip of Wes's nose with his finger.

"You're cute."

"I'm serious!" Wes says.

"Oh, I know."

Wes's expression shifts between annoyed and pleased for a moment. Ultimately, pleased seems to win out, and he boops Danny's nose back.

"Pretty boy," he says.

Danny blushes.

"If you two are gonna keep flirting, can you do it somewhere else?" Jazz asks. "Some of us miss our girlfriends."

"It's not my fault Kiki couldn't come," Danny says. "Why should I be punished?"

Ana and Jazz share a look. They've been doing that more and more often lately. Danny doesn't like it. Pretty soon they're gonna gang up on him, and Danny Jack hasn't been much help lately.

"Fine~" Danny says. He uses gravity's fickle hold on him to float up until he's standing, then holds out his hand for Wes. "C'mon. Let's go find some mermaids."

"Someone could have seen that, y'know," Wes says, though he takes Danny's hand, stands, and then doesn't let go.

"But nobody did," Danny argues as they head towards the water.

Wes's skin is already starting to tinge pink, despite the copious amount of sunscreen he's lathered on. There's freckles all over his shoulders and chest.

Danny loves summer.

"Idiot," Wes accuses.

"That's me."

They make it to the water's edge and wade in to their knees. Wes looks around, then shrugs. "Nothing."

"No kidding. Mermaids don't exist."

Danny chuckles at Wes's wounded expression. Sometimes he entertains Wes's ideas to watch him smile, and sometimes he shoots them down to see exactly the expression that's appeared on Wes's face now. 

"Next you're gonna say ghosts aren't real either," Wes says.

"We've seen ghosts," Danny tells him, challengingly. "I've never seen a mermaid. I don't think anyone has."

"They definitely have," Wes says.

"Have not."

"Have."

Danny shakes his head. "I'm not doing this with you."

"That means I win."

"You wish," Danny says. "Come here and kiss me."

Wes does, wrapping his arms around Danny's waist to pull him closer. Danny smiles into the kiss.

He's happy. The sun on his skin makes him feel semi-warm, his boyfriend's shirtless and they've got the whole day ahead of them.

"Dork," Wes says when they pull apart, pressing his forehead against Danny's. "I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too," Danny says. "...But there definitely aren't any mermaids here."

"That's okay. Let's just make out, then."

Danny grins.

"Sounds like a plan."


End file.
